Ypsilanti Township is asking a judge to shut down an illegal, unlicensed adult foster care home where residents have allegedly been harassing neighbors and police have been repeatedly dispatched.

Calls for service at the home on the 5000 block of Big Pine Drive have ranged from first-degree criminal sexual conduct to disorderly person, and officials say neighbors in the subdivision have complained about the home's clients knocking on their door at 2 a.m. to beg for cigarettes.

Mike Radzik, director of the office of community standards, said Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office deputies and ambulances have been dispatched to the address 27 times in the past six months. Three mentally ill or disabled adults requiring assistance live there.

The home is owned by Pittsfield Township resident Ikechukwu Odum Jr, who township attorney Doug Winters said runs a nonprofit called MicHoldings Inc.

Odum did not return calls from The Ann Arbor News.

Township Planning Coordinator Joe Lawson said state law allows a home adult foster care facility to care for up to six adults. But township zoning laws require the health care provider to reside in the house if it's in an area zoned for single-family homes. Officials say there is sufficient evidence Odum is not living there.

Lawson and Winters also say Odum doesn't possess a state license, though others in the same position who are unlicensed and caring for adults have claimed to the township that one isn't necessary.

"We're trying to get some clarification from the state as to why these people think they don't need a license when caring for those who can't care for themselves," Lawson said. "This has a negative impact not only on the immediate neighbors, but the neighborhood as a whole. A lot of times (the clients) aren't being supervised or they're wandering."

Lawson said a licensed caregiver could request a special conditional use permit from the planning department and run a small group home housing up to 12 clients without having to live there.

But, as it stands now, the Big Pine home is viewed like a boarding house and is in violation of zoning laws.

“People who need assistance should get the assistance they need in that setting … though when you have 27, 28 calls for service in a short time, obviously something isn’t being properly managed,” Winters said.

Officials say illegal halfway homes and adult care facilities run in residential zones are a regular issue in the township.

In 2012, the township successfully shut down a halfway house on McKinley where mentally ill resident was caught masturbating in front of a 10-year-old girl and one attempted to force his way into neighbors’ homes.

“There are believed to be many such homes operating throughout the area in violation of our zoning ,” Radzik said.